Project Description
Virtual economies — where artificial currencies are exchanged in online worlds for dematerialized goods and services — are presently impacting the ‘real’ economy. The leakage of one to another appears on eBay, on the SL Exchange and through virtual land brokers. This mixed economic model overturns established relationships between labor and production. As specialty items can be obtained at a fraction of their real world cost, our perception of the value of objects becomes further obscured.
No Matter reflects this conflation of imaginary and real economics by:
(1) commissioning the creation of imaginary objects in Second Life; (2) inviting viewers to re-construct these immaterial 3D objects in physical space; (3) paying them Second Life wages; (4) reselling the replicas on eBay.
Imaginary objects captivate us through their aura of intangibility. They appear in literature and mythology (e.g. Proust’s madeleine, the fountain of youth), in representational media such as painting and film (e.g. the Maltese Falcon) or items that have been lost or destroyed (e.g. the Buddhas of Bayman, the Apollo 11 moon landing tapes). Atomized through virtual space, the desired cultural item transmutes into an exchangeable yet artificial commodity.
The web will serve as an information conduit and commerce mechanism. A custom site will track the status of the imaginary objects and fulfill orders. In Ars Virtua, a dynamic installation will invite the virtual public to consider the trafficking of commodities into different realities. At Huret & Spector Gallery, the art audience will serve as workers, actualizing cheap replicas of the objects through precut cardboard prints.